Facing jail: The teaching assistant with an arsenal of guns at her Wythenshawe home

Kimberley Bray, 45, who works at St Paul’s Catholic High in Wythenshawe, claimed to know nothing about the weapons found at the home she shared with convicted gangland armourer Paul Taylor but a jury rejected her story after hearing a 12-bore shotgun was discovered under her duvet.

The court heard her dedication to her job provided a cloak of respectability for Taylor.

During the trial, the jury was told a 12-bore Benelli shotgun was found under the couple’s duvet when police called – suggesting guns were on ‘open display’ at the house at Burbage Road, Newall Green.

It can now be revealed that one of the guns Bray has been found guilty of possessing – a Tariq self-loading pistol smuggled from Iraq – has been linked to three shootings. It was used to fire shots at Barnwood Road, Newall Green, near where Bray and Taylor lived.

Less than a year before that, it was used in a shooting in Milnrow, Rochdale, where the bullet whizzed past a sleeping eight-month-old. Before that, a man was shot in the leg with the same weapon after masked raiders stormed his Audenshaw home.

Bray was found guilty of possessing Tariq and Glock 9mm handguns, the 12-bore shotgun and 550 bullets. She was cleared of helping Taylor set up a cannabis farm and possessing a Skorpion sub-machine gun.

Taylor, 45, admitted possessing the firearms with intent that others might endanger life, as well as producing cannabis.

It is expected that he will be sentenced alongside Bray in August. Bray was told to expect ‘a sentence of imprisonment of some appreciable length’ by Judge Michael Henshell.